Fastener positioning device

ABSTRACT

A fastener positioning device is illustrated wherein an elongated member is slidably carried within a housing, the elongated member having a notch at the forward end thereof opening at the front end and on one side of the elongated member for receiving an enlarged fastener with the shank depending through the notch, and a retaining leaf spring engaging the enlarged head of the fastener. Means are provided for moving the elongated member forwardly while the retaining means supports and maintains the fastener within the notch during forward movement of the elongated member, but freeing the fastener when the elongated member is in forward position to permit retraction of the elongated member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Fastener positioning devices in a wide variety of constructions havebeen provided heretofore. Such devices are usually stationary althoughportable devices of sorts have been utilized. Many of the positioningdevices of the prior art have utilized impact means having a magnitizedhead for receiving and positioning the head of fasteners fed fromvarious fastener feeding devices. Problems have arisen in connectionwith such devices in that there have been no reliable means for insuringthat the fasteners will be received from the feeding device every timein a desired position by the magnitized impact head. Such reception ofthe fastener would be complicated were the positioning device mobilizedto move from one position to another. A recent effort to provideeffective means for aligning the fastener is exemplified by thedisclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,588 which utilizes magnitized meansfor aligning the shank of the fastener means. The entire arrnagement ismovable laterally in response to movement of the impact means. Thefastening means which may be utilized therewith are limited, since aparticular shank construction is required. Moreover, since the fasteningmeans are not positively positioned, such would be of questionable valueif utilized with a mobile structure where positive positioning isnecessitated due to vibration encountered when moving the entireapparatus from place to place while discharging and impacting fasteners.

Accordingly, it is an important object of this invention to provide afastener feeding and positioning means capable of use with a vehiclewhich may be moved to position the fasteners in a desired sequence andposition on an extensive nailable area such as a roof deck and the like.Devices constructed in accordance with the present invention haveparticular utility in connection with the fastening down of felts, sheetmetal, and paper, etc., utilized in vermiculite, metal and wood, etc.deck constructions.

Another important object of the invention is to provide positive meansfor positioning fasteners which maintain the positioning of thefastening means positively at all times until they are positioned by amagnetized impact head immediately prior to impact.

Another important object of the invention is to provide a positivefastening positioner which will work every time to position fastenersand which will require a minimum of attention while in operation and aminimum of maintenance thereafter.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has been found that a reliable fastener positioning means may beprovided by utilizing an elongated slidable member having an open endednotch carried by the forward end of the slidable member for receiving afastener having an enlarged impact receiving head with the shankdepending through the notch together with a retaining means whichengages the fastener while in the notch and which maintains engagementwith the head of the fastener during the advancing movement of theelongated member to position the impact receiving fastener head forreception by a magnetized impact imparting head. The elongated member isthen withdrawn, the retaining means being so as not to interfere withthe shank while the positioning means is withdrawn so as not tointerfere with the action of the impact head while driving the fastenerinto position with the shank passing into the nailable structure whichis to be fastened by the fastening device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The construction designed to carry out the invention will be hereinafterdescribed, together with other features thereof.

The invention will be more readily understood from a reading of thefollowing specification and by reference to the accompanying drawingsforming a part thereto, wherein an example of the invention is shown andwherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view, illustrating the fastener positioning deviceconstructed in accordance with the present invention utilizing a wheeledvehicle with parts schematically illustrated and with parts omitted forpurposes of clarity;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view illustrating various controlmechanisms for operating various parts of the device illustrated in FIG.1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view illustrating the fastener positioningdevice with parts in position for receiving a fastener from a suitablefeeding device positioned laterally of a fastener receiving notch;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation illustrating the fastener positioning devicewith the parts in position illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view illustrating the fastener positioning devicewith parts moved to a forward position having carried the fastener to aposition where it is received by the magnetized impact head;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation illustrating the device with parts positionedas in FIG. 5, and

FIG. 7 is a side elevation illustrating the parts of the fastenerpositioning device in withdrawn position immediately following impact.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The drawing illustrates a device for positioning fasteners, saidfasteners having an enlarged impact receiving head and an elongatedshank portion extending outwardly from an intermediate position thereof,including a housing A. An elongated member B is slidably carried by thehousing. A notch C carried at one end of the elongated member is open atan end and side of the elongated member for receiving a fastenersupporting the head with shank projecting through the notch. A retainingmeans D, in the form of a leaf spring, is carried by the housing on oneside of the head remote from the shank. The leaf spring has a bearingmember E positioned forwardly of the notch supporting the head in thenotch. Means F are provided for moving the elongated member forwardlywhile the fastener is retained in the notch by the force of the springfor positioning the fastener prior to rearward movement of the elongatedmember.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1, a wheeled vehicle is illustratedhaving a support plaform 10 carried by a pair of forward wheels 11 and apair of rearward wheels 12. The plaform 10 carries a pair of rearwardlyand upwardly projecting handles 13 and 14. A feeding device ispositioned on the platform 10 between the wheels and includes a feedbowl 15 having suitable vibrating means schematically illustrated at 16for feeding fasteners into an open track 17 defined between spaced guiderail means 18 and 19. The enlarged head portions of the fastening meansride on the rails 18 and 19 with the enlongated shank portions thereofdepending through the open track 17 as will be described in greaterdetail below.

It will be observed that an axle 11a which carries the forward pair ofwheels 11 (FIG. 2) carries a variety of cams 20. These cams are utilizedto actuate a fluid operated mechanism controlling the feeding andimpacting of the fasteners utilized with the device. The cam means 20 isillustrated as depressing a lever 21 which is pivoted as at 22 on thevalve 23 for actuating a pneumatic valve 23 causing air to flow throughthe line 24 and the fittings 25 and 26 to the line 27. This actuates thepiston of the cylinder 28 to advance the positioning mechanism moving asingle fastener forwardly to be received by the magnitized impact headof the impactor 29 as will be explained in greater detail below.

For automatic operation, a valve 30 is carried adjacent the grippingportion 14a of the handle 14 so that a leve 31 pivoted as at 32 may bemanually depressed causing air from a suitable supply to be fed throughthe line 33 to the valve 23. An engine 34 drives a compressor 35 carriedby the platform 10 which supplies air through the line 36 to the valve30. For manual operation, a valve 37 may be hand operated through thelever 38 to selectively supply air through the line 39 to the fittings25 and 26 for operating the cylinder 28 as desired.

The elongated member B of the fastener positioning device is withdrawnpreparatory to impact by the impactor 29. The valve 40 is actuated byengagement of a depending link 41 carried by the lever 42 which isengaged by an outwardly projecting stop 43 carried by the elongatedmember B for actuating the valve 40 to supply air through the line 44 tothe cylinder 29a of the impactor and to move the elongated member Btoward the right hand side in FIG. 2. The impactor head 45 is magnitizedand is carried by a rod 46 carried by a piston (not shown) within thecylinder 29a.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 3 and 4, the fasteners areillustrated in broken lines as having an enlarged impact receiving head46 and a shank portion 46a which extends into the open trackway 17between the guide rails 18 and 19 which support the enlarged head 46 forfeeding the fasteners to the positioning device hereof.

The housing A is illustrated as including an elongated upper plate 47,supporting end frame members 48 and 49 each of which has a slot 50 inthe lower portion thereof for permitting longitudinal sliding movementof the elongated slide member B. The slide member B had connected on oneend a piston rod 28a projecting from the piston of the cylinder 28 as bythe bracket member 51.

It will be observed that the notch C is defined by a U-shaped member 52whose vertical legs present a free upper surface 53 and by a pair ofspaced vertical stops carried forwardly thereof so that the slot opensforwardly and provides sufficient depth to accommodate the shank of thefastener. The U-shaped member 52 is fastened to the elongated member Band by a bracket 52b welded to both members as at 52c. One of the legsopens laterally as at 52a.

The leaf spring D has connection as at 54 between the plate 47 and theend frame member 48. The elongated sliding member B carries the fastener46 forwardly to the position shown in FIG. 5 with the fastener retainedby the force of the spring D in position to be received by the magnetichead 45 of the impact member 29.

It will be observed that the leaf spring D extends substantiallyhorizontally and rearwardly to support the adjacent upper portion of thehead 46 of the fastener so that the shank portion 46a depends within theslot C.

The slide B is moved forwardly by actuation of the means F including thecylinder 28 and rod 28a. When in forward position as illustrated in FIG.5, the enlarged head 46, is freed of encumbrance by the spring D and isin a position to be received by the magnetic head 45 permitting theelongated slide member B to be freely withdrawn to a position asillustrated in FIG. 7. When the slide member B is withdrawn to asufficient extent as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, the depending link 41moves about its pivot 41a moving the lever 42 upwardly to actuate thevalve 40 which permits air to flow to the cylinder 29 through the line44 producing impact causing the shank to pass into the nail receivingportion such as for fastening felt, sheet metal, paper, etc. 61 to avermiculite, metal, wood, etc. deck 62.

It will be observed that the fastener feeding means including the trackdefined by the rails 18 and 19 feed a supply of fasteners by gravity forreception one at a time at the open side of the notch C. This supply offasteners is interrupted by the elongated member B upon forward movementthereof so that the notch is no longer in registry with the supplymoving down the track, thus, temporarily cutting off the supply untilthe notch is in position to receive another fastener during anothersucceeding operation of the apparatus.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described usingspecific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, andit is to be understood that changes and variations may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is: .[.1. A device for feeding fasteners having anenlarged impact receiving head and an elongated shank portion extendingoutwardly from an intermediate position thereof to a fastener receivingmeans comprising: .[. The structure set forth in claim 5 including, awheeled vehicle on which said device is carried including fastenerfeeding means for presenting fasteners for reception at said side ofsaid notch..]. .[.7. The structure set forth in claim 6 wherein saidmeans moving said elongated member includes fluid operated means, andcam means moved by said wheeled vehicle for actuating said fluidoperated means..]. .Iadd.
 8. A device for feeding fasteners having anenlarged impact receiving head and an elongated shank portion extendingoutwardly from an intermediate position thereof to a fastener receivingmeans comprising:a housing; an elongated member slidably carried by saidhousing; means at one end of said elongated member open at an end andside of said elongated member receiving a fastener with the shankprojecting therebelow; a retaining means maintaining the fastener on theelongated member; means moving said elongated member forwardly carryingthe fastener for reception by the fastener receiving means prior torearward movement of the elongated member permitted by means open at anend releasing said shank portion formerly disposed therein; and awheeled vehicle on which said device is carried including fastenerfeeding means for presenting fasteners for reception at said side ofsaid means at one end of said elongated member..Iaddend. .Iadd.
 9. Thestructure set forth in claim 8 wherein said means moving said elongatedmember includes fluid operated means, and cam means moved by saidwheeled vehicle for actuating said fluid operated means..Iaddend.